Crown (NYSE:CCK) Downgraded to "Hold" Rating by Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Crown (NYSE:CCK) from a "buy" to a "hold" in a client research report, joining a mix of other recent analyst price-target adjustments.
• Crown beat Q results with $1.74 EPS vs. $1.69 expected and $3.13B revenue vs. $2.99B expected, and set FY2026 guidance of 7.90–8.30 EPS (sell-side consensus is ~6.96 EPS).
• Insider selling has occurred recently (CEO and COO sales among others totaling 59,734 shares over three months) even as institutional ownership remains high at about 90.9%.

Crown (NYSE:CCK - Get Free Report) was downgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Crown from $128.00 to $127.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Crown from $111.00 to $109.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Crown from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Crown in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Crown from $135.00 to $129.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $124.40.

Crown Trading Up 2.9%

NYSE CCK opened at $107.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $107.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $102.34. The company has a market capitalization of $12.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.75. Crown has a 12 month low of $83.23 and a 12 month high of $116.62.

Crown (NYSE:CCK - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.74 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.99 billion. Crown had a net margin of 5.97% and a return on equity of 26.68%. The company's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.59 EPS. Crown has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.900-8.300 EPS and its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.700-1.800 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Crown will post 6.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown

In other Crown news, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 7,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.85, for a total transaction of $801,375.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 451,070 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $48,196,829.50. This trade represents a 1.64% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Djalma Novaes, Jr. sold 29,734 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.80, for a total transaction of $3,413,463.20. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 88,052 shares in the company, valued at $10,108,369.60. The trade was a 25.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 59,734 shares of company stock worth $6,619,863 over the last three months. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Crown

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Crown in the 3rd quarter worth $43,417,000. CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of Crown by 73.3% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 72,075 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $6,962,000 after acquiring an additional 30,488 shares during the period. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Crown in the 3rd quarter worth $15,472,000. United Super Pty Ltd in its capacity as Trustee for the Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund lifted its stake in shares of Crown by 235.5% in the 3rd quarter. United Super Pty Ltd in its capacity as Trustee for the Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund now owns 25,500 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $2,463,000 after acquiring an additional 17,900 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Crown by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,666,360 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $171,668,000 after acquiring an additional 36,540 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.93% of the company's stock.

Crown Company Profile

Crown Holdings, Inc is a leading global supplier of rigid packaging products for consumer goods markets. The company designs, manufactures and sells metal packaging for beverage, food, household, personal care and specialty products. Its portfolio includes aluminum and steel beverage cans, steel food cans, aluminum aerosols, metal closures and ends, offering customers end-to-end solutions from design and prototyping to large-scale production.

Founded in 1919 as the Crown Cork & Seal Company, Crown has grown through strategic acquisitions and investments in advanced manufacturing technologies.

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